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Food non to open new location, create 40 jobs
STAFF PHOTO BY REGGIE PONDER
The Food Lion name and logo is now emblazoned across the facade of the company’s new location at Chowan Crossing on Virginia Road. The store is scheduled to open April 6.
Store will be at Chowan Crossing, will open April 6
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
The new Food Lion store
at the Chowan Crossing
shopping center on Vir
ginia Road is slated to open April
6, a company spokeswoman said
this week.
“We look forward to serving
the Edenton community at this
new location,” said Christy Phil
lips-Brown, a Food Lion spokes
woman.
The new location is in the
building that previously housed
Farmer’s Foods.
“We look forward to serving
the Edenton community at
this new location."
Christy Phillips-Brown
Spokeswoman, Food Lion
Food Lion’s current store at
the Edenton Village shopping
center on North Broad Street is
slated to remain open through
April 5.
The company is holding a job
fair Thursday to hire about 40
additional associates to serve
customers at the new location,
according to Phillips-Brown.
“We expect all associates to
transfer to the new location, in
addition to the approximately 40
new associates we are looking
to hire to support customers at
our new location,” said Phillips
Brown.
Expanded product lines are
being eyed for the new location.
“The new store has 32,000
square feet throughout the store
and will have expanded sell
ing areas for the expansion of
products we’re bringing into the
store,” said Phillips-Brown “Our
pew store will have a variety of
expanded items for customers
including a new produce cooler
that will keep produce fresher
longer with expanded varieties,
including natural and organic
products. We’ll also expand
products offerings in our fresh
departments, including meats,
produce, delPbakery, and much
more.”
The Chowan Crossing area
near the intersection of Virginia
Road and U.S. 17 has been a hub
of activity in recent weeks in
preparation for the relocation of
Food Lion.
If you have shopped at Roses
or eaten at Subway or Garden
Buffet — or simply driven by on
Virginia Road and glanced in the
direction of the shopping center
— you likely have noticed the
work being done on the parking
lot and changes occurring on
the outside of the grocery store
building.
It has been about a year since
Food Lion announced plans to
relocate its Edenton store from
the Edenton Village location
to the new location at Chowan
Crossing.
Developer working out financing for hotel project
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
'Hie developer of a high
end hotel in the former
Chowan County office
building on East King St reet
is now eyeing a Fall 2017
opening for the hotel.
Bob Howsare of SAGA
Construction and Develoje
ment Inc. said this week
that the company hopes to
close on the financing and
tax credits by the end of
June and start construction
“Working with the town
and the county and the
people of the town has
been just great.”
Bob Howsare
SAGA Construction
and Development Inc.
iiv August or September.
The goal would be to
open the hotel for business
about a year after construe
tion begins, he said.
The financing on this ho
tel project has taken longer
than for most other devel
opment projects because of
the complexit y of the financ
ing — especially as it relates
to federal new market tax
credits, he said.
Some banks are not famil
iar with tax credits, others
won’t finance projects that
involve tax credits, and still
others are generally skittish
about hotels, according to
Howsare.
That the hotel is being
developed independently
— it’s not part of a m^jor
chain — and is located in a
small town add additional
challenges in financing.
But the company has
found a bank that is inter
ested and the developer
has done detailed financial
modeling to demonstrate
the project’s feasibility for
the bank.
“We’re in negotiations at
this point with the bank that
we believe is going to do the
deal,” Howsare said.
The developer still has to
get the allocation for federal
new market tax credits.
Howsare said it’s a com
plicated deal but one the
company believes is impor
tant for tire economic de
velopment of Edenton and
Chowan County.
Chowan County sold its
former office building on
East King Street in July of
last year after nearly two
years of negotiating the
deal.
Immediately upon acquir
ing the property, SAGA an
nounced plans to return the
structure to its historic use
as a hotel.
Preservation North Caro
lina acquired the property
from the county and then
resold it immediately to
SAGA Construction and De
velopment. That process al
lowed for the establishment
of historic preservation
covenants that will protect
See HOTEL, 2A
Early voting tops
2012 Primary mark
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
Voters in Chowan County
went to the polls Tuesday
following an early voting
period in which turnout
exceeded the figure for the
2012 Primary.
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©2009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved -
The total number of one
stop votes cast in this Prima
ry was 1,132, up from 982 in
2012. This year saw the ad
dition of a second one-stop
voting site at the Northern
Chowan Community Center
in Tyner.
There were 932 early one
stop votes cast at the Agri
culture Building on Virginia
Road in Edenton and 200 at
the Northern Chowan Com
munity Center.
See EARLY VOTING, 3A
Council OKs solar farm text amendment
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
The town council has agreed on a
revised text amendment to the town’s
Unified Development Ordinance
governing the establishment of so
lar farms. The action came during its
March 8 monthly meeting.
Prior to the vote Councilmen Sambo
Dixon and Steve Biggs expressed res
ervations concerning some elements
of the amendment drawn up by town
staff that encompassed buffering and
a decommissioning plan.
Town Manager Anne-Marie Knigh
ton said in a March 3 memo to the
council that a principal change in the
proposed amendment would only al
low the establishment of a solar farm
in areas zoned IW (Industrial Ware
house Zone).
“I recommend you consider allow
ing in the IW, Industrial Warehouse
Zone, by Conditional Use Permit, with
the conditions you have been consider
ing since December,” she said. “Based
on the action you took at the February
Council meeting, denying a CUP for a
Solar Farm in tire Rural Agricultural
District, I have removed that zoning
district from the proposed amendment
to the Use Table. I also decreased the
maximum height of the Solar array
structures to not exceed from 15 feet
to 10 feet And I inserted a screening
requirement of a minimum height of
15 feet and a depth of 100 feet”
“I’m okay with a 100 foot buffer,”
Dixon said. “But 1 want 50 feet for
plantings with indigenous trees such
as pine and oak."
He added that he would like to see
the buffered area around any solar
farm look like forest land.
“If it was going by my house, that’s
what I would want,” Dixon said.
And Biggs said he was uncomfort
able with a provision of the decom
missioning process that would allow
an irrevocable letter of credit from a
bank licensed to do business in North
Carolina
Mayor Roland Vaughan then asked
for a motion to approve the text
amendment as prepared and present
ed at the meeting with the exception
of requested changes to the buffer and
decommissioning requirements.
Tire motion passed unanimously.
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